Professor Flanagan was at South By Southwest last week to speak on the Games For Change panel. The group of speakers was a solid collection of some of serious gaming’s most influencial thinkers and practicioners including: Suzanne Seggerman, Pres, Games for Change, Eric Zimmerman, Co-Founder, Gamelab, Heather Chaplin, author of Smartbomb, (Algonquin Books 2005), Benjamin Stokes, Program Officer, MacArthur Foundation, and Chris Swain, VP/Programming, Spiderdance. The panel was yet another chance to share our Values At Play work with a new audience. The talk went really well, and you can read some of the reactions on other people’s blogs.

SXSW

Serious Games Source

Bay Area Video Coalition

Buzz About the Redistricting Game 

This weekend’s Grassroots Media Conference was a big success, with over 900 registrants and a solid turnout for the VAP Grow A Game workshop. Dr. Mary Flanagan began the session with a brief presentation on why activists would want to express their messages through games, and what some of the challenges to doing so are. There is a common misconception among people outside the gaming field that technical hurdles are the biggest barriers to developing activist games. Mary stressed that creating a great design that is on message is far more difficult than finding a programmer. It’s because of this belief that Values At Play team’s work is focused on creating design tools, not technical tools. The Grow A Game cards are the most recent asset released by Values At Play, and we’ve found them to be a great help during brainstorming sessions. After Mary concluded her introduction, it was time to get down to business. Read the rest of this entry »